Most salons and stylists have seen salon-exclusive hair products making blatant appearances in Costco, Target and Wal-Mart. Popular lines like Redken, Matrix, Paul Mitchell, Sebastian, and even TIGI ,which were once recommended by salon professionals are now stacked on shelves next to laxatives and deodorant . This - once sea change and now tsunami - of product redirection is known as diversion.

Diversion takes away the ability of salon professionals to recommend professional hair products to the consumers and gives that power to bulbous corporations hell-bent on squeezing the last dime of profit out of the process.

Did you ever wonder why clients are never happy with their shampoos or styling products? They have no clue which ones to use and how to use them to full advantage.

You - the professional - are not there standing in the aisles of Walmart to tell them which ones are best for their hair. You are certainly not around the mountainous racks at Costco to show them how best to use that spray or wax. You let soap companies do that for you. You dropped the ball.

It's fourth down and fifteen and time to punt or toss a Hail Mary pass. Hair product manufacturers and distributorships are saying "we didn't divert" and pointing fingers at salons and stylists as the root cause of diversion and salons/stylists are pointing right back. Without a clown car filled with attorneys, it is hard to pin down the sources of diversion, but the reasons for this trend are easier to spot.

Regional salon chains and distributorships got into tax or investor trouble when the market burped and the banks pulled back; and manufacturers got consolidated in a Wall Street orgy of cheap money.

Ever wonder who really owns that shampoo line you grew up with. Well, it isn't owned by the guy whose name is on the bottles, for the most part.

When the handful of giant soap companies bought everything up, everyone got paid off and everyone lost the emotional connection to their products.

It is far easier to recognize who does not divert than discover who does -

• Hairdressers and salons still passionate and connected with their clients do not divert.



• Independent distributors of products driven by education do not divert.
  
  
• Manufacturers owned and operated by hairstylists still excited by their craft do not divert.
  
  
• Growing professionals do not succumb to the false rewards of diversion.
  
  
• You and I do not divert. As to the rest of them: we can only guess.
  
  

What can you do to halt the rapid spread of diversion? The Altieri Brothers recommend we all go back to what worked before. Bring out our biggest weapon: sharing knowledge of the products we use with our clients. Stop pointing fingers and blaming mindless companies so detached from the salon business that they have no idea what we are upset about.

Big companies forced diversion on the marketplace with the power of massive wealth, but they really only played the cards we salon professionals dealt. We walked away from the table with a full house: forgetting that the power to use, recommend and make available the perfect products for the perfect look trumps all their money.

If we properly recommend products and show our clients how they are used, they will buy them right out of our hands. Diversion will dry up like a summer pond and the most powerful connection between stylists and clients will, once again be placed in your hands.

It's really up to you and I.